Question.3170 - For each measure of central tendency, provide an example of when the measurement would be most useful. Review the examples of your classmates,comment on the appropriateness of their choice.
Answer Below:
The usefulness of measurements of central tendency depends on the particular set of numbers as well as the type of data under consideration. Mean is the best measure of central tendency if a particular data set has no outliers and is roughly symmetric. Example: we often want to know before purchasing a car its average distance per litre of petrol which is nothing but the mean. Consider the set of marks obtained by a student out of 100: 80, 90, 90, 100, 85. The percentage obtained is the mean which is 89. Median is the best measure of central tendency if there are a huge number of outliers i.e. the data are very skew or if we are looking for data where it is ranked. For example, consider the wages of employees at work: Employee 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Wage 17k 18k 18k 19k 20k 16k 14k 35k 90k 87k The mean wage is 33.4k which is being skewed by two large wages. In this situation median is most useful. The number that appears the most is the Mode. It is the only measure which is used while dealing with the nominal data or non-numeric values. If we want to find out the most common pet in a particular locality, we enlist the types of pets of everyone and then find out which pet is listed the most. While dealing with nominal data, say, marital status which can be married, single, divorced or de facto. We look at the following table: Status Frequency Single 90 Married 50 Divorced 30 De facto 20 In this case we have to choose mode. The same is applicable for shoe size, waist size etc. Reference: https://statistics.laerd.com/statistical-guides/measures-central-tendency-mean- mode-median-faqs.phpMore Articles From Statistics
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